Sliding Wear of Copper Against Alumina

Abstract

OFHC copper pins with 10 ppm oxygen were slid against alumina at a load of 50 N and sliding speeds of 0.1 ms−1 to 4.0 ms−1 . The wear characteristics of copper were related to the strain rate response of copper under uniaxial compression between strain rates of 0.1 s−1 and 100 s−1 and temperatures in the range of 298 K to 673 K. It is seen that copper undergoes flow banding at strain rates of 1 s−1 up to a temperature of 523 K, which is the major instability in the region tested. These flow bands are regions of crack nucleation. The strain rates and temperatures existing in the subsurface of copper slid against alumina are estimated and superimposed on the strain rate response map of copper. The superposition shows that the subsurface of copper slid at low velocities is likely to exhibit flow band instability induced cracking. It is suggested that this is the reason for the observed high wear rate at low velocities. The subsurface deformation with increasing velocity becomes more homogeneous. This reduces the wear rate. At velocities >2 ms−1 there is homogeneous flow and extrusion of thin (10 μm) bands of material out of the trailing edge. This results in the gradual increase of wear rate with increasing velocity above 2.0 ms−1 .